Bear with Me (Half-breed Shifter Series) by Miranda Stowe

 
     
    Prologue
     
     
    Brick Lowery didn’t have a
lot of friends. Aside from his asocial tendencies, large stocky body, enormous
gawky nose, shaggy hair and awkward gait, he was just plain weird. At least,
that’s what all his classmates told him.
    Mama said he was merely going
through a stage. He’d grow into himself. But he had a feeling she had to say
that because she was his mother. Inside, he knew he was different. None of the
other kids at school could ever smell what he smelled, they didn’t like going
off by themselves as much as he did, and they over-valued some of the most
ridiculous things he thought were just plain meaningless.
    But lately, his weirdness was
even creeping him out. It had started with the hair. As soon as puberty hit, it
had begun to grow...in the strangest places. He’d taken his concerns to Mama,
but she hadn’t even bothered to glance up from the magazine she was flipping
through before waving him off.
    “Of course you’re growing
hair in strange places. You’re getting older. Everyone does.”
    But he’d seen the other boys
changing for gym class and none of them had gotten quite as much hair as he
had. He’d taken to leaving his gym clothes on under his school clothes so no
one could see him without a shirt.
    It was too bad he was the
product of a one-night stand; he’d really like to ask a father some questions
about other things too. But there was no adult male in his life. There was just
Mama, which was fine. He adored his mother to distraction.
    But even his beloved Mama had
grown concerned when this winter had hit. Exhaustion bore down on Brick with a
vengeance, and he couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings for anything. It took
nearly an act of God for Mama to pull and yank and demand he get up and ready
for school. Finally, still half out of it, he’d stumble awake and slug through
each day, only to collapse on his mattress as soon as he made it back home. And
weekends...well, Mama had given up completely on trying to wake him during the
weekends.
    They’d visited a doctor’s
office three times already, thinking he had mono or some kind of rare malady.
But every physician announced him as healthy as a horse. One had set his hands
on his hips and shaken his head in absolute bewilderment. “If I didn’t know any
better, I’d say you were trying to go into hibernation.”
    The word stirred a warm
feeling of comfort inside Brick. Hibernation. Yes, that’s exactly what he
wanted to do. He just wanted to keep the blankets up over his windows, burrow
under his covers into a nice warm den, and hibernate until Spring.
    Mama said that was
ridiculous, though, and she kept trying to force him awake every day for
school. Just like she did this fateful morning.
    Mondays were the worst. After
his nice weekend nap, he was even more resistant to waking up.
    “Brick!” she yelled, probably
for the fifth time in the past five minutes. “I mean it. Get your ass up or I’m
pouring a bucket of cold water on your head.”
    He groaned something
unintelligible, still half out of it, and kept the five layers of blankets on
top of him firmly tucked in around him, covering him from head to toe. Then he
settled back in and began to drift off once more.
    “That’s it!” His mother’s
scream two feet away roused him less than a minute later. “I’ve had enough of
this. You are going to wake up. NOW!”
    The covers were promptly
ripped away, and icy cold water splashed him in the face, shocking him
completely awake. Pissed off to the extreme, he stood up on his bed, roaring,
“Mama!”
    Except the word Mama didn’t leave his mouth. It’s what he meant to say, it’s what his brain told his
lips to shout, but it’s not at all what came out. Instead, an animalistic
rumble ominously echoed around the walls of the tiny chamber.
    What was even more confusing
was that his head bumped the ceiling when he stood up.
    If all that hadn’t clued him
in that something was definitely wrong,